I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that, but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue

Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

King.

Let's farther think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad per formance,

"Twere better not assay'd; therefore, this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof. Soft;-let me see :-
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings.2-
I ha 't.

When in your motion you are hot and dry,

(As make your bouts more violent to that end) And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferr'd him A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,+ Our purpose may hold there. But, stay, what noise?

i. e. as bre arms sometimes burst in proving thei strength. 2 Skill.

3 I will have presented to him a cup for the purpose.

4 l'hrust.

SHAK.

XIV.

K

Enter QUEEN.

How now, sweet queen?

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow. Your sister 's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where ?

Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make

Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal1 shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call

them:

There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread
wide;

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,

2

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer.

Alas, then, she is drown'd?

Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet

It is our trick; Nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.-Adieu, my lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

[Exit.

King. Let's follow, Gertrude. How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again; Therefore let's follow.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

A churchyard.

Enter TWO CLOWNS, with spades, &c.

1 Clown. Is she to be buried in christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 Clown. I tell thee she is, therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial.

1 Clown. How can that be unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

Immediately.

2 Clown. Why, 'tis found so.

1 Clown. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else for here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal she drowned herself wittingly.

2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

:

1 Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life.

2 Clown. But is this law?

1 Clown. Ay, marry, is 't; crowner's quest law. 2 Clown. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.

1 Clown. Why, there thou sayest: and the more pity, that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. Come; my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

2 Clown. Was he a gentleman ?

1 Clown. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clown. Why, he had none.

I Fellow.

1 Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself

2 Clown. Go to.

1 Clown. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter 2 Clown. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

1 Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well: but how does it well? it does well to those that do ill: now thou dost ill, to say the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To 't again;

come.

2 Clown. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?

1 Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.1

2 Clown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clown. To 't.

2 Clown. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance.

1 Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating and, when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses that he makes

¡ Give over.